Gretchen Walsh nearly broke her own world record to win the U.S. title in the 50m freestyle as she prepares for the biggest international meet of the year.
She clocked 23.60 seconds, the third-fastest time in history, in Irvine, California.
The only faster times are Walsh’s world record of 23.55 from June 28 and Virginia training partner Kate Douglass’ former world record of 23.59 from June 19.
Walsh takes that momentum into the Pan Pacific Championships in two weeks, also in Irvine. Pan Pacs are for swimmers from outside of Europe, while Europeans compete in their own continental championships this month.
SWIMMING NATIONALS: Results
“I’ve had a great summer in that event already, and it’s not over yet,” Walsh said on the NBC Sports broadcast. “This is a great tune-up swim for Pan Pacs.”
Walsh also owns the 16 fastest times in history in the 100m butterfly, plus the second-fastest 50m fly in history — eight hundredths off Swede Sarah Sjostrom’s world record.
Walsh swept the 50m and 100m flies at the 2025 World Championships for her first individual golds at a major international long-course meet.
With the 50m fly making its Olympic debut in 2028, Walsh could go into the LA Games with a chance to become the fourth American woman to win three individual swimming golds at one Olympics after Debbie Meyer (1968), Janet Evans (1988) and Katie Ledecky (2016).
Also Saturday, nine-time Olympic gold medalist Caeleb Dressel capped his best swim meet in two years by claiming his second win in four races.
Dressel won the men’s 50m free in 21.35 seconds, his best time in four years.
Dressel ranks third in the world this year by best time after 2024 Olympic gold medalist Cam McEvoy of Australia (20.88 world record) and Russian Egor Kornev (21.06).
Earlier this week, Dressel won the 100m free — his first top-level race victory since the 2024 Olympic Trials — with his best time since the 2024 trials.
He was also runner-up in the 50m fly in his best time since the 2022 World Championships and runner-up in the 100m fly in his best time since the 2024 trials. Ilya Kharun won both races.
“Freestyle is usually second-best, but I think we flipped it at this meet,” said Dressel, who turns 30 on Aug. 16. “I’m the old man, it’s fine.”
While nationals marked Dressel’s biggest meet of 2026, other stars are prepping for Pan Pacs. The Pan Pacs roster was determined by top times from last summer.
Dressel did not make the Pan Pacs team after taking time off since the Paris Olympics and changing coaches and training setups.
“My goal for wrapping up the year was to just get some confidence back,” he told SwimSwam. “I was telling (coach) Steve (Jungbluth) we were checking the boxes throughout training and even the Pro Swims (meets) along the way, but I never had my confidence fully back. I needed this week, and it wasn’t necessarily times. It was just a bunch of things accumulated to finally have the year wrapped up and to finally get my confidence back. I feel like after the 100m free morning (Dressel’s first race of the week on Tuesday), I checked what I needed to. So it was pretty smooth sailing after that. Everything else was just a bonus. I’m really, really excited for next year. I never wanted to use this year as a pass over and constantly look at the next. That’s not how I operate, but knowing that we need more time with the new training and everything. This was kind of the learning year.”
Earlier Saturday, Douglass became the fourth-fastest woman in history in the 100m free.
The Olympic 200m breaststroke gold medalist swam 51.93 in a time trial in Irvine. That’s five hundredths off Virginia training partner Anna Moesch’s American record.
The only faster women in history than Moesch and Douglass are world record holder Marrit Steenbergen of the Netherlands (51.68) and the former world record holder Sjostrom (51.71).
Ryan Erisman won his third national title this week, taking the 800m free in 7:43.53 to become the second-fastest American in history behind Olympic gold medalist Bobby Finke.
Erisman, a rising Cal sophomore, also won the 200m free and 400m individual medley.
Maximus Williamson went from the last qualifier into the men’s 200m IM final to winning the national title.
Williamson, a rising University of Virginia sophomore, clocked 1:56.40 to become the second-fastest American teen in history after Michael Phelps.
